Blacks And Conservatism

July 02, 1985|By Vernon McKinley.

WESTMONT — ``Many think Pendleton leans too far white.`` So reads a May 28 Tribune headline to describe Clarence Pendleton, a black conservative appointed by President Reagan to head the Civil Rights Commission. Those who think this way seem to be saying that if a black does not cling to a political philosophy on the leftward fringes of the Democratic Party, he or she is somehow acting

``white.`` Supposedly blacks cannot have as diverse opinions as whites like President Reagan and Walter Mondale without something being wrong. If I were black, I would be quite offended by such an assumption.

I had the privilege of hearing Mr. Pendleton speak last summer and he was subjected to verbal attacks similar to those at his West Side speech. He did a tremendous job in turning back his critics and in so doing cited the works of two black economists who hold free-market ideals, Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams. So the next time people think that whites somehow have a monopoly on conservative/libertarian thinking, a look at the facts would prove otherwise.